Ear curettes designed for the removal of cerumen from the ear canals of children and adults have been known for some time. Bionix Development Corp. developed the first plastic ear curette, introducing it into the marketplace in 1984. Since then, Bionix has expanded its line of Safe Ear™ Curettes to include seven different tip styles, each designed to meet a particular problem with impacted cerumen encountered in clinical practice.
In 2004, Bionix introduced its Lighted Ear Curette, and has since expanded the line to include six different tip styles. The Lighted Ear Curette (LEC) is constructed of light-conducting polycarbonate plastic that allows light from the attached light source to be transmitted into the ear canal. This serves to illuminate the ear canal, turning what was a blind procedure into one allowing direct observation of the cerumen removal.
Thus far, all of the Bionix ear curettes, both Safe Ear™ Curettes and Lighted Ear Curettes, are static in nature, i.e. the tips, although flexible, are not designed to move during the procedure. This can present a problem when it is desirable to get behind a piece of wax or, in some cases, a foreign body to pull it from the ear canal. In these cases, using a standard ear curette—such as either the Safe Ear™ Curette or LEC—requires the user to push down on the curette with sufficient force to trap the wax or foreign body against the ear canal wall and try to roll it out. This can cause significant pain to the patient, and is often not successful.
In addition, there are moveable graspers and picks that are known to the medical market. One such device, the Quire Mechanical Finger, uses a hinged tip connected to metal actuating arms such that, when the actuating arms slide relative to each other the action causes the tip to swing downward on its hinge. The device also needs a spring mechanism to return the tip to its un-bent position. This requires the user to grasp the device at the spring handle end, distal from the ear canal and in an awkward and unwieldy fashion for the delicate procedure of removing a foreign object from the ear.